Richard Dreyfuss: 'I'm not Julia-Louis Dreyfus' father!'

Actor Richard Dreyfuss has assured fans he's alive and well after being misidentified as Julia Louis-Dreyfus' late father.

The 68-year-old actor, most well known for his roles in Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, received messages of concern from many of his Twitter followers on Sunday night (18Sep16) after Julia revealed the recent death of her father in her Emmy Awards acceptance speech.

Following the bombardment of condolence tweets, Richard took to his Twitter page to write: "I'm actually not Julia Louis-Dreyfus' father. But I really appreciate all the concerned tweets."

Richard then took the opportunity to slam The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for never recognising him with an Emmy Award, despite his prolific career on the small screen including his recent portrayal of swindler Bernie Madoff in mini-series Madoff.

"You know who else hasn't won an Emmy? Me. This has nothing to do with Hitler. Get your mind out of the gutter," he wrote, referring to his previous controversial remark that "inside all of us is Hitler and Jesus".

Richard did win one of the most prestigious acting awards when he took home an Oscar in 1978 for The Goodbye Girl, and tweeted later on Sunday evening: "One of my favourite things to do is just pet my Academy Award. People think it's weird. People have never petted their own Academy Award."

Comedienne Julia made history by scoring her sixth career win at the TV prizegiving, but it was a bittersweet moment when she revealed in her acceptance speech for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in Veep that her 84-year-old dad had just passed away.

Fighting back tears, Julia said, "I'd like to dedicate this to my father William Louis-Dreyfus, who passed away on Friday. I'm so glad that he liked Veep, because his opinion was the one that really mattered."